forum: Food & Drink

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

My kids love to cook and even more, to eat. I'd say there favourite dish in the whole world is Roast Chicken with lemon and fresh herbs cooked with cous-cous or potatoes...or sometimes both...green beans and broccolli.

One Free-Range ChickenHalf a LemonMaldon Sea SaltFresh herbs...any...usually rosemary and lavender as we have lots of it just now.Olive OilButter

Place a few pinches of salt in the chicken cavity along with half of the herbs and the lemon; I give it a squeeze first. I sometimes add some whole garlic cloves. Take some butter at room temperature and smear over the chicken...a little goes a long way...and then drizzle a little olvie oil over the skin. Take another pinch or two of salt and sprinkle over the chicken along with the rest of the herbs, roughly chopped. Place in the oven at 200 degrees for approx, 1-1.5 hours, depending on chicken size.

Place a small knob of butter into a pan and melt over a gentle heat. Put in cous-cous...same weight of cous-cous to liquid, i.e. 9 ounces of cous-cous to 9 liquid ounces of chicken or vegetable stock....and stir, making sure the cous-cous is coated. Then add the stock and stir for a minute then take of the heat and leave to 'soak'. After abot five minutes, put back on heat and stir for a few minutes. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice, stir and place into a bowl. Brush a fork through cous-cous to separate. Add diced cucumber and spring onions and mix.

Steam broccolli and green beans for 2-3 minutes, place in pan or bowl and add knob of margarine and sprinkle of sea salt. Shake to mix.

If making with potatoes, use tiny new potatoes and add to chicken 30 minutes before ready.

When chicken is ready, leave to rest for 10 minutes. Take some of chicken juice and add a tablespoon or two to cous-cous and mix. To make gravy, bring the remaining chicken juice...all lovely lemony, herby flavours....to boil and add a dash of wine, some gravy granules or flour and stir constantly until smooth and all the 'bits' have been incorporated. Put in gravy boat and serve with chicken.

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

looking at en earlier post about bland food i thought i would share what have done. i started my kids on bland versions of food. eg chilli was tomatos with peppers in chilli oil and a can of beans stired into fryed off minced beef. i started to add small amounts of chilli powder then cumin over time and they never noticed. now they eat the 'grown up' version complete with fresh chillis.

I also applyed this to a keema, it was mince and rice, and tikkas and so on. i added slightly extra sugar to tomato sauces and reduced this and the sure way to get them to eat...get them involved...get them to roll meatballs, flatten burgers and fish cakes and grating ingrediants. my eldest will read recipes on new meal ideas too.

but back to school. yes. On nights we have clubs we will eat jacket potato halves that we have topped with leftover roast chicken, bacon and cheese or spag bol or chilli that has been stored in the freezer.

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

My little girls both dislike bread so sandwiches are not a option for packed lunches. Fortunately they love eggs. Their favorite Monday lunch is all the left over veg and potatoes from Sunday roast lightly fried off then egg and milk mixture poured over the top. Gently cook for about 10 minutes then pop under the grill to cook the top. Leave to cool then turn out onto a chopping board to fully cool. I make a big frying pan of this then cut it into slices, wrap and freeze in slices, ready for packed lunches or snack for the park.

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

Hi all and Jamie

I`m 14, but cooking is for me the best thing to do.I`m from Slovakia and here is hard to buy anything.it`s horrible! seafood? for you nothing special for slovakians something what we can get only in specialisated shops where it costs much money.but i`m cooking meals from ingredients what i can get there for example i cooked risotto bianco from your book and it was amaizing.In 2 days my mum is having birthday and i want to cook her something special.I would like to ask you to write me or recommend a good recipe

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

Food for young school age children should be simple, not overloaded with sauces and flavours and should be bite size. A huge hunk of meat or a large sandwich turns kids off as they do not feel overwhelmed with smaller portions. I think children need to start the right eating at home...parents need to be re-educated and supported to plan healthy meals. We should put pressure on fast food restaurants to radically change and if I had it my way, I would shut them down. Food should be explored. Children should be active in grocery shopping, learning about ingredients in foods and picking and growing foods in gardens to become intrigued about food. My 5 year old does not like some veggies like celery and onions, so I asked her why. She said the onion was owerpowering...to strong, so I changed the way I chopped it up...or I cook them until they are soft on top of hamburgers instead of raw. My 5 year old eats a wide range of foods because we lived in China for 3 years and there you have no choice as a child what you eat. You eat what you are served or you go hungry, so I adopted that policy so when I moved back to Canada and then to Australia. If she really truly does not like something, then I will not give it to her with the promise that in a month she will try it again...and often times, she eventually acquires a taste for it. I do not serve my daughter the kids menu when we go out to eat...she eats an entree of adult sized food so she has something healthy instead of pizza and chips all the time. The last time we went out to eat, she had salmon, with shrimp, celery and macadamia nut salad along with some chinese vegetables...she loved it. I rarely buy her sweets outside...as I home bake all snacks, muffins and cookies...and any outside snacks or treats are not called food...we call them extras at home and they are just that extras of what we don't actually need, but just like going out to a movie, it is okay once in awhile. The only time my daughter goes to MacDonalds is for a friend's Birthday party and she actually says no herself to the pop (coke) and french fries. Anyway, parents...stop being afraid to making rules in the house...life is not lead by what the majority is doing. We follow all these designer labels, movie stars and buy anything for our kids with a Disney label on it, but we are literally poisoning our children's minds and bodies. We have to say no to false misleading advertising, demand less additives and healthier foods in stores. And, you can eat simply without big cost or big effort. Do we only shape up when Jamie Oliver tells us to? God Bless Jamie Oliver (but not his potty mouth ) We need to be leaders in our homes. Trust me....if the only food avaliable in schools or at home is healthy food...your kids will learn to eventually eat it if the only other option is to starve! Sounds harsh, but my daughter loves her healthy food! God Bless everyone and thanks Jamie for being radical with your heart to go out and make a stand and try and give our children a better future. Maybe one day, heart disease and cancers will be a thing of the past, but listen to Jamie Oliver everyone...he really understands about food and how it affecting our children and they must at all costs just learn to eat better.

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

HI Jamie, first time to post on your site, however im a huge fan of your cooking.School starts today and i find the best thing i did was plan ahead, writing down each day and what im putting into the bag i categorized into 5 : sandwich, fruit, veg, drink, treat. Today it was a tuna Melt: prepaired the tuna mix (tuna, mayo, celery) the night before, Shredded cheddar. While the kids where having breakfast it took me 1 minute to make! assemble the sandwich : butter one side on the other side layer the tuna and the cheese , put the top bread on and put it on a frying pan, to brown both sides of the sandwich, slice in half and ready to pack.Another recipe is pita bread with zataar and olive oil. Open the pitta and cut into serving slices. Mix zataar and olive oil and spread over the bread, bake in the oven for 2 minutes. you can cut into smaller pieces and give the kids a lebna as a dip, just an idea.

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

It's not the school lunches that is so bad - my daughter gets a sandwich, two pieces of fruit and a homemade cake for her morning tea and lunch. The school is very good and the kids cant go and play until they have finished what is in their lunch boxes. The problem that I have is dinner time - my daughter eats brocolli so she gets that every night - but she doesnt like any other vege. (allthough we do but spinich into her mashed potato and say its the brocolli leaves). Any other ideas for getting a range of vege - or shouldnt I be worrying so much if shes getting the brocolli??

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

When I was a kid, my Mom used to pack up sandwiches for us to eat at school along with fruit juice and dessert. My favorite has always been chunky chicken-tuna sandwich with lettuce, onions and cheese. Kids are not big eaters so it's always nice to ensure that meals being given to them are rich in nutrients.

Re: back to school / cooking for kids

My boys like salmon cakes,I make them extra small so they fit in their hands.They like sausages,i usually get turkey sausages so they are bit healthier,not too healthy but they love french fries(chips)...they love fruit.So I just cut that up and give it to them.And they really like oatmeal cookies,extra oatmeal with currents and made with rice flour not wheat flour.

Become a member of jamieoliver.com for free and access loads of lovely stuff around the site.
You'll get Jamie's latest recipes and food tips direct to your inbox, take advantage of exclusive promotions and offers, ask
Jamie and his team questions in the forums and enjoy your weekly newsletter too.

By submitting this form you consent to receiving news and updates from businesses in the Jamie Oliver Group of companies and the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation. You also agree to our terms and conditions found here.

I am not a robot.

We'd love to get to know you a bit better so we only send you

news and recipes that you want to read. If you've got two

minutes to spare, it would be great if you could answer a quick questionnaire.